How Do I Avoid Probate in South Carolina?

South Carolina has no general statute making a payable-at-death provision in a written instrument nontestamentaryS.C. Code Titles 1 to 63 (the Code of Laws)Verified Nov 1, 2026View source. A policy with no beneficiary, or one payable to the estate, is part of the probate estate.

An employer plan is governed by federal law: An employer retirement plan pays its death benefit to the beneficiary named in the plan's records, and federal law displaces a state rule that would redirect it. A married participant's spouse is the beneficiary unless the spouse consented in writing to another29 U.S.C. § 1144(a)Verified Nov 1, 2026View source. A retirement account with no beneficiary named is part of the probate estate.

Survivorship title in South Carolina: South Carolina's statutory survivorship vesting is a deed naming the grantees "as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, and not as tenants in common"; the statute does not create a tenancy by the entirety. The South Carolina Supreme Court has held that the statute does not apply to a joint tenancy created by a deed executed before it took effect on August 17, 2000; the common law governs those tenanciesS.C. Code Ann. § 27-7-40Verified Oct 26, 2026View source. In South Carolina, no statute authorizes a transfer on death deed. A home in the owner's name alone, with no survivor, deed beneficiary or trust, is part of the probate estate.

South Carolina titles a vehicle with a transfer on death designationS.C. Code Ann. 62-6-401Verified Oct 21, 2026View source: the vehicle passes to the named beneficiary at the owner's death without probate. The form is Application for Transfer on Death (Form TOD-1)S.C. Code Ann. 62-6-401View source. A vehicle in the owner's name alone is part of the probate estate.